RISD, NASA test Mars space suit

G. Wayne Miller Journal Staff Writer gwaynemiller

Monday

Dec 5, 2016 at 11:02 AMDec 5, 2016 at 11:02 AM

A full-scale, wearable model of a space suit designed for the first Mars landing underwent hours of testing Monday at the Rhode Island School of Design, where students led by professor Michael Lye designed and built it in partnership with NASA and a mission-simulation project in Hawaii.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A full-scale, wearable model of a space suit designed to be used on the first Mars landing underwent hours of testing Monday at the Rhode Island School of Design, where students led by RISD professor Michael Lye over the last year designed and built it in partnership with NASA and a mission-simulation project in Hawaii.

On hand were Andrzej Stewart and Dr. Sheyna Gifford, scientists with the NASA-funded Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation mission (HI-SEAS), which is conducting experiments in preparation for manned exploration of the planet. NASA spacesuit engineer Shane McFarland was on hand, too. All professed delight in the early testing, as did Lye.

“Very pleased,” said Lye. “Very happy.”

Said Kasia Matlak, one of his students: “It was very interesting. I learned so much.”

At about 9:30 a.m., Lye and his team assisted Stewart into the suit, which bore a passing resemblance to Buzz Lightyear, one of the fictional characters in the blockbuster 1995 animated movie, Toy Story. The crew then tested comfort, flexibility, movement, air supply, radio communications and other factors. The testing was to continue through mid-afternoon at RISD’s Industrial Design building on South Main Street.

The suit will soon go to the HI-SEAS mission at the University of Hawaii’s Manoa complex. Lessons learned will be applied to the actual suits that will be built for the first Mars exploration, slated for about two decades from today.

“NASA is hoping to go in the 2030s,” said Gifford, who graduated from Moses Brown School in 1996, and earned a masters degree in science from the University of Rhode Island in 2006. Gifford also holds a medical degree from St. George's University, Grenada, and a science journalism degree from the University of Southern California. Family members live in Providence.

The simulation suit weighs about 45 pounds, but the actual model “would weigh about three times this weight” but still seem as light, said engineer McFarland. That’s because the force of gravity on Mars is about a third that on earth.

Gifford drew a distinction between the more common suits used by International Space Station and Space Shuttle-era astronauts.

“The big suits they wear in space -- you don’t need to move your lower legs much, you’re not walking,” she said. “The ‘planetary suit' allows you to walk, to bend at your waist, to pick things up, to manipulate tools. It’s a whole re-conceptualizing of what a space suit is for.”

And, she said, the Mars model will be different from those worn by Apollo-era astronauts who walked on the moon decades ago.

“Of course we put our feet on the ground on the moon, but there was such little gravity and there was such little bending,” she said. “This is designed to have a lot of movement… [and] good visibility in the head. You’ll notice the head is an ellipse, not a big round ball, and that gives you good visibility on all sides.”

The suit was constructed of carbon-fiber composite material and two types of nylon, among other substances. The cost was about $10,000, provided by NASA and Brown University's Rhode Island Space Grant Consortium, according to Danielle Mancuso, RISD public relations specialist.